"And be miserable for life in spite of the money," said her aunt, with a shrug of the shoulders expressive of pity. How little Mrs. Herbert understood the character of Mary Armstrong will be seen in the sequel. On the morning of the next day Mary rose with the feeling that an incubus had been removed from her shoulders. At last she was set free from the unpleasant necessity of listening to the frivolous conversation of Captain Fraser. "How thankful I am that it is over!" she said to herself, while busily engaged after breakfast in packing her boxes with the assistance of Annette, who was _desolée_ at the approaching departure of Mademoiselle Marie. Her task was scarcely finished when a message from her aunt summoned her to the drawing-room. "Should you like to ride Daisy home to-day, my dear?" said Mrs. Herbert; "your uncle has business at Harrow, and he can accompany you as far as the Limes." "Oh, indeed, aunt, it would be delightful; I shall enjoy it beyond everything. When does uncle propose to start?" "At about twelve o'clock." "I shall be ready, aunt dear; and will you send my boxes? Annette has been helping me to pack them. Oh, aunt Herbert," she continued, "you have been so kind, I shall never forget this pleasant visit." A few hours later Colonel Herbert parted from his niece at the Limes after a hasty lunch, the latter quite unprepared for the consequences of her kind and innocent attentions to Reginald Fraser. CHAPTER XXIII. A DISCOVERY AND ITS RESULT. Reginald Fraser left Park Lane after the last evening of Mary Armstrong's visit full of determination to call upon her father on the following day. In spite of the effeminate and _nil admirari_ style of the young officer, he had many amiable qualities, and was not quite deserving of the title of a "good-natured fool," which his brother officers applied to him. Motherless from his birth, an orphan before he had reached the age of four years, the almost neglected child was placed by his grandfather at a preparatory school for little boys. From this he passed to Eton, and after studying at the Woolwich Academy entered the Guards, and at the age of twenty-four obtained his company. At Woolwich he had formed an acquaintance with Charles Herbert, and this young officer before starting for Canada had said to his mother-- "Mother, I wish you would look after that easy-going young fellow Fraser, he's got more money than he knows what to do with, and the sooner he finds a wife the better, or he'll get fleeced and no mistake." Mrs. Herbert remembered this request of her son's, and while in Park Lane she encouraged the young officer to make their house his home.